Three South Florida residents, including imam from Margate, arrested in Taliban case

Federal law enforcement accuse 6 of helping terrorists in Pakistan

In addition, the indictment alleges the elder Khan supported the Pakistani Taliban through an Islamic school that he founded in the Swat region of Pakistan. Khan allegedly used the school to provide shelter for the Pakistani Taliban and has sent children from his school to learn to kill Americans in Afghanistan.

Law enforcement agents recorded a phone call in July 2009 in which the elder Khan called for an attack on the Pakistani Assembly that would resemble the September 2008 suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan.

On another occasion in September 2010, agents recorded a conversation in which Hafiz Khan stated that he would provide that individual with contact information for Pakistani Taliban militants in Karachi. Upon hearing that mujahideen in Afghanistan had killed seven American soldiers, he declared his wish that God kill 50,000 more, according to prosecutors.

The investigation was undertaken by the FBI in conjunction with the Joint Terrorism Task Force based on a review of suspicious financial transactions and other evidence.

Federal officials said the probe started three years ago when transactions were flagged and grew to involve wiretaps and eavesdroppings.

According to the allegations, from about 2008 through November 2010, the six provided money, financial services and other support to the Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban, according to the FBI, is a Pakistan-based terrorist organization formed in December 2007 by an alliance of radical Islamist militants.

The U.S. government says the Pakistani Taliban has links to both al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"Today terrorists have lost another funding source to use against innocent people and U.S. interests," said John V. Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI's Miami office. "We will not allow this country to be used as a base for funding and recruiting terrorists."

Hafiz Khan lives across the street from the Miami mosque, also known as the Flagler mosque because of its location three blocks north of Flagler Street, just east of the Palmetto Expressway.

In a small apartment tucked behind a nondescript house, Hafiz Khan's wife answered the door Saturday and indicated she did not speak English or Spanish and could not comment.

Neighbors said he and his wife had lived there for many years, but had little contact with other residents.

"I'd see him go back and forth across the street, but we never spoke," said Jorge Lopez, 30.

Musa Kebir, 51, a construction worker and native of Algeria who was also in morning prayers when agents arrived, said he was alarmed by the commotion at the mosque door, but continued with his prayer.

"I had no idea what was going on," said Kebir. "But we are trained to focus. So that is what I did."

Assisting the FBI in the investigation and arrests were U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, Broward Sheriff's Office, Florida Department of Environmental Protection and police from Miami-Dade County, Miami, Miramar and Margate, along with the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force.